1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to tillage, treating, and cultivating devices for row crops.
2. The Prior Art
Where premerge chemicals are applied at planting time to row crops to form a sterile band alongside the plants, it is often desirable after emergence of the crops to again treat the fields where the crops are growing. Depending upon crop, weed, and soil conditions, a farmer may desire selectively to treat the field along the crop rows without disturbing the band, or he may add chemicals to the bands to destroy weeds growing therein, or he may cultivate and destroy the band together with the weeds growing therein but without uprooting the crop, or he may wish to defend the band margins from encroachment by weeds. Prior utilization of cultivation discs for these purposes required mounting of the discs onto a cultivator unit at a location normally reserved for a cultivation sweep. The gauge wheel for the sweep was positioned other than alongside the crop rows, making positioning of the laterally-extended discs somewhat independent of ground contours at the crop rows. Poor lateral spacing and tracking of the discs in relation to the crop row was also experienced because of lateral shifting of the cultivating unit caused by variable side pressures exerted on the discs.